Philadelphia 76ers: Sixers back to work after holiday break

Philadelphia 76ers' Jrue Holiday (11) shoots against the Cleveland Cavaliers in the first quarter of an NBA basketball game Wednesday, Nov. 21, 2012, in Cleveland. Cleveland won 92-83. (AP Photo/Mark Duncan)

PHILADELPHIA — Whether it was their coach’s intent, or if it was instead a form of flagellation for their string of rocky openings to games, the Sixers practiced for two and a half hours Friday.

The Sixers were off Thursday for the Thanksgiving holiday and, in a loss at Cleveland a day earlier, they played as though they weren’t required to report to work that day, either. That was readily apparent in their 3-for-18 shooting display to begin the game.

“If you dig yourself a hole, your rotations change, you start going to the bench sooner and now what you do is you start chasing the game,” Sixers coach Doug Collins said, following a fruitful practice at PCOM. “What I would compare that to is oversleeping by 30 minutes and waking up and never getting those 30 minutes back because you’re chasing it all day in your work day. When I get behind, I’m not very good. I can never get that time back.”

“It’s like running a marathon up-hill. At what point in time do I get to run downhill?”

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Can you sense that the slow starts are beginning to wear on Collins?

The Sixers haven’t begun games the way they’ve finished them. For having been outscored in the opening stanza nine times out of 12, the Sixers (7-5) are somehow a winning club. They welcome Oklahoma City to the Wells Fargo Center tonight for a game that, should the Sixers ease into it, might get out of hand in a hurry.

“It could get pretty ugly,” the Sixers’ Jrue Holiday said.

The Thunder, who bring the league’s second-best scoring average, will pit their high-powered offense against the Sixers and the NBA’s top scoring defense.

Despite an ability to hold teams down, to the tune of 90.9 points per game, the Sixers are a befuddling bunch. They’ve been able to carry a lead into the second quarter three times. And they’re 3-0 when that happens. While Collins had been hinting at a lineup change, something to break up the funk the Sixers are in, he said he isn’t ready to commit to that.

Instead, Collins said he’s hoping the instruction he’s given his players — about beginning practice and shootaround with the same intensity level they should assign to games — takes root.

“There’s this misconception that the NBA is a fourth-quarter game,” Collins said. “That’s maybe when the excitement begins, but the first quarter, a lot of times, dictates how you’re going to play with your rotations.

“We ease into practice. We’ve talked about those things. We can’t ease into practice. Our coaches work hard to get the guys prepared, not just for games but for practice. … From our standpoint, it starts with gameday shootaround and when we get to the arena, when we do our pregame stuff, how we get out in warmups, and how we get into the game. All of those things, obviously, we need to get better at.”

The Sixers will have no room for error against Oklahoma City.

The Thunder have been averaging 103 points per game. To put that into perspective, the Sixers have scored in triple figures twice this season.

The reigning Western Conference champions, the Thunder boast an imposing lineup that had not changed through 12 games. (Their 13th was Friday in Boston.) Kevin Durant, who averaged 25 points and 10 rebounds, will create matchup problems for the Sixers anywhere from the shooting guard to the power forward positions. Russell Westbrook, who Collins categorized as “a pitbull point guard,” and Kevin Martin, a 49-percent shooter who’s filled nicely the sixth-man spot vacated by recently traded James Harden, present issues, as well.

“They’ve got superstars on that team that can fill it up,” the Sixers’ Nick Young said. “We have to come out and hit first. We can’t get hit first. There’s no coming back from that.”

NOTES: Nick Young, who played 32 minutes off the bench Wednesday, isn’t concerned with cracking the starting five. “I’m with the team just trying to fill my role,” he said. Collins said the Sixers have “been monitoring” how they use Thad Young in practice. Young has been called upon to defend teams’ most-physically imposing players. Tonight, there’s a chance Young will have to body up with Oklahoma City’s Serge Ibaka, Kendrick Perkins or even Durant. Spencer Hawes, as he hurried out of PCOM, wasn’t tracking down Black Friday sales. “I’ve got a month before I start shopping.”